Long-Term Care - Illinois General Assembly

materials should emphasize 3 key areas: the restorative and rehabilitation services that
each nursing home provides; the medical specialties of each facility; and the customer
satisfaction levels of the individuals served by each home. The Illinois Department of Public
Health should work with the provider associations, universities and consumer research
experts to develop these resident and family satisfaction surveys. Other states, including
Michigan, have successfully developed this type of program. Illinois Council on Long Term Care
(ICLTC)
REGULATION
• Place a priority on ensuring that there is fair and reasonable oversight of all types of longterm
care facilities. State budget cuts and early retirements have significantly depleted the
resources of the Illinois Department of Public Health, the agency charged with regularly
conducting oversight of licensed long-term care facilities, assisted living establishments, and
unlicensed entities. This has stretched existing staff beyond reasonable limits. The majority
of the dollars designed to establish a survey unit for assisted living and supportive living
facilities was eliminated from the budget approved by the Governor. These circumstances
may result in additional stress to the oversight system in Illinois. It is important to ensure that
high quality and consistent surveys will be conducted by a team of well-trained surveyors
that the elderly and disabled have access to licensed entities, and that unlicensed entities
are inspected and, where necessary, closed. This requires the availability of appropriate
human and financial resources. Illinois Health Care Association
• The current staffing levels for nursing home inspectors and complaint investigators are
inadequate to insure the continued safety of nursing home residents. It is imperative that
the General Assembly take a closer look. Facility operators have indicated that the situation
will become volatile if something does not happen soon. AARP
• A more progressive enforcement system administered by the Illinois Department of Public
Health should emphasize actual resident care outcomes, rather than the thousands of minor
technical mistakes that can happen in every health care setting. The federal government's
30 "sentinel care" outcomes, based on extensive computerized resident assessment data,
provides an effective springboard for evaluating the overall quality of care provided in each
Illinois nursing home. This allows enforcement agencies to target areas that warrant more
intensive investigation, without bogging them in investigations that do not affect resident
care. Illinois Council on Long Term Care (ICLTC)
• Aggressive enforcement of the assisted living licensure code is important to the viability of
the assisted living industry, the financial stability of the facilities, and the health, safety, and
well being of the frail elderly residents. AARP
• An important aspect of ensuring customer and family satisfaction is the ability to make
reasonable complaints and to have those complaints resolved. The current system makes it
difficult for an individual to navigate through the complaint process. Currently, the Illinois
Departments of Public Health, Human Services and Aging, and the State Police each have
complaint hotlines. Individuals contacting these hotlines may not be aware of the
appropriate agency to contact when problems arise. Consolidation of these hotlines into a
single entity could streamline the process, saving vital time and state resources as well as
making the complaint process much easier to access. In addition to a common intake
system, it is imperative that common definitions of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation,
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